A lesson in priorities for Christians

What matters most? Sometimes it’s hard to tell. But there’s nothing like a crisis to put things into perspective. For example, while it may not be evident in everyday life, you can see people’s priorities put in order when the house is burning down. If their priorities are right, they’re going to wake their spouse and grab their children before reaching for that expensive appliance.

Priorities. You can see them in proper perspective when people are on their deathbeds. God, who may have been pushed aside for decades, suddenly tops the list again. Family, the ones who surround you at such a time, will always trump the work you left at the office. We need to learn how to prioritize.

And we need to prioritize when it comes to our policies and our politics. Take a bunch of “evangelical Christians” who, according to Sunday’s Seattle Times, claim to be pro-life Christians and for Obama. No matter how slick the slogans or how “cool” the candidate, you can’t be both.

Look, to be a Christian means you have to follow Christ. What did Christ say? “If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments.” And what were some of those commandments? God prioritized them for us, and “Thou shalt not kill” made the top 10. It wasn’t “change” or “diversity” or “tolerance” or “government programs” that made the list; it was the protection of human life.

Our Founding Fathers did the same thing. In the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s birth certificate, they explained that we are endowed by our Creator with the 1) unalienable right to life, 2) liberty and 3) the pursuit of happiness. Life got first billing because it makes every other right possible.

I was once asked by former Ohio House Speaker Vern Riffe why “the life issue” mattered so much to me. He listed a bunch of other issues like health care and education and wondered why I spent so much of my time lobbying and speaking for just one “single issue.” I explained, while I care about many issues, life is a prerequisite to every single one. What good is health care if you’re dead?

Know how to prioritize.

Joel Richardson, co-editor of “Why we Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out,” was on my Faith2Action radio program yesterday and brought up the importance of prioritizing on other issues, as well. Because Americans have placed “tolerance” as our No. 1 value, it has pushed other American values like “human freedoms” and “human rights” to a secondary rank. That’s the only way a philosophy that is anti-American, anti-freedom and anti-human rights is welcomed with open arms into schools, universities, churches, prisons and neighborhoods across America.

On the program, one “government school graduate” called in suggesting that we should be nicer and not speak of the “kill the Christians and Jews” goals of the Quran as “evil.”

To clarify in a way he could understand, Richardson took us back to the 1930s and wondered if someone could criticize the Nazi philosophy without being accused of speaking against Germany or offending the people of the day. We all now recognize that if you really loved your country and its people, you would have spoken out against this great evil. History reveals that the ones who did are the real heroes.

I’m not questioning the First Amendment rights of anyone, but I have to wonder if under today’s “tolerance is supreme” mindset, we would have also encouraged and welcomed Nazism with open arms into our schools, universities, churches, prisons and neighborhoods. If a presidential candidate who favors killing 50 million citizens can be supported by self-proclaimed “evangelical Christians,” I think the answer is yes. Thankfully, we have history to show us the result of such an unmistakable evil philosophy. But if we look a littler harder, we can see the results of Obama’s philosophy today: 50 million dead children, millions of wounded mothers, fathers, siblings and friends … and the consequences continue.

We need to prioritize our policies and our politics before the house burns down or we face our deathbeds. The house may not be burning down just yet, but in September 2001, there were some buildings that did. We may not be on our deathbed, but there are 4,000 American children today who are – because of the policies and the deadly philosophy of Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. We can’t be a pro-life Christian and support either one.

To those who are confused about the candidates and the culture, I have one word for you: prioritize.